SF POET D.A. “ROARSHOCK” WILSON FEATURED AT JULY VIRTUAL THIRD THURSDAY

Point Arena Third Thursday Poetry presents a virtual Third Thursday Zoom Poetry reading at 7pm on Thursday, July 15, 2021. This month features SF poet D.A. “Roarshock” Wilson, with open mic to follow.

Roarshock is a Northern California Poet and Storyteller based in San Francisco. His work has appeared in eccentric, obscure and unknown publications, some of which he edited. His chapbook – First Hours of a Rainy Day and Other Poems – was published in 1997, and since 1998 he has been publisher and editor of ROARSHOCK PAGE, a literary street flyer. To his great delight, someone has placed issues of ROARSHOCK PAGE in the Little Maga/Zine Collection of the San Francisco Public Library.

Roarshock believes strongly in Public Libraries and other public cultural spaces, free speech and free expression, and an open online world as exemplified by projects like Wikipedia and the Internet Archive and Spoken World Online. He opposes censorship, including “cancel culture”, all bigotry and inequality, and corporate control of art and culture.

During the 2020 pandemic he sheltered at the ancestral home in historic Martinez, California, which has no ivory tower. Since he did not storm the walls of academia, he has had many mundane jobs including warehouseman, coffee roaster, editor, newspaper critic and reporter, law librarian, and for two decades coordinator in the flagship newsroom of the world’s leading commercial newswire, with his thumb on the very jugular of capitalism.

Roarshock has read live on Pirate Cat Radio and Radio Valencia in San Francisco and performed in venues as diverse as Adobe Books and the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in San Francisco, and Au Chat Noir in Paris. In addition to continued composition, publication and performance of his poems, future projects include writing a multi-volume mythological High Fantasy adventure series and penning a 21st century children’s book (the protagonist an anthropomorphic bear), for adults and children of all ages. The collected ROARSHOCK PAGE and many other works are on his web site, roarshock.net.

Zoom reading starts at 7.

To watch or participate as an open mic reader, please email blake@snakelyone.com.

Third Thursday Poetry Zoom made possible by the Arena Theater and continues to be supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation.

ASILOMAR BEACH MEDITATIONS

Flying eyeball wings across the sky.
The bleached blue sky of April
Off-set against the white sand.
I walk upon this beach
In the slow lopping gate
Of many miles to go before
I rest my weary bones.
I hear the rhythm in the waves
Just listening without analyzing
Not particularly going anywhere.
Understand this is a miracle.
Ain’t it good to be alive?
I rejoice in my poet’s vision
And regret not the times
When demons torment me
Or emotions unhinge me
Or falsehoods deceive me.
For these are necessary parts
Of the process
And only this ocean is eternal.
The irregular rhythm of the waves
The manifestation of cyclic patterns.
The diffuse blue light of a warm afternoon
Inspires one to calm meditations
Whilst one would bark at the moon
That hangs in the dark sky
And both are reflections of one.
Duality is illusion.
All the same ocean.
In this world of trickery
We trick ourselves.
Each of us a Buddha
Eating pomegranate seeds.
It is our duty
To help each seed
Reach its full potential.
Although there is no reward in this
Beyond doing it.
Enjoy the drama
Dream of life
The poetry of it
And the ocean shall answer
In its answer
That is no answer.

D. A. Wilson